Alarm clocks and the like having various designs, structures and configurations have been disclosed in the prior art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,562 discloses a switch-off device for an electrically operated clock alarm and control thereof. An electrically operable alarm is provided for a clock and includes a clock operated switch for turning the alarm on at a selected time. A manual switch is provided which, when opened momentarily, will cause a bistable switching circuit to go to a second condition in which the alarm remains silent until the clock operated switch again closes the next day. The manual switch is adjustable for preventing the alarm from sounding when the clock operated switch closes. This prior art patent does not disclose or teach the design and configuration of a single day alarm clock of the present invention.
There are therefore situations in which it is undesirable for an alarm clock to go off every day at a previously set time. An example of such a situation is a hotel that provides alarm clocks in the rooms thereof for the use of hotel guests. When a hotel guest uses a hotel-provided alarm clock, the guest may not disarm the alarm before checking out of the hotel. Thus, unless a hotel employee or the next guest to stay in the room disarms the alarm, the alarm will sound the next day at the time set by the previous hotel guest. Therefore, a disadvantage of a conventional alarm clock is that a user, such as a new hotel guest, for example, may be undesirably awakened when the alarm sounds at a time set by a previous user.
Another disadvantage of conventional alarm clocks is the inability to effectively prevent altering settings thereof, such as the time, for example.